​PILOT PROGRAM TEACHES ROBOTS HOW TO MAKE CARTON RECYCLING MORE EFFICIENT

Through a collaboration between the Carton Council, AMP Robotics and Alpine Waste & Recycling, a robotic system has learned to identify the wide variety of food and beverage cartons in order to grab and separate them from the recycling stream.

In its ongoing efforts to advance food and beverage carton recycling, the Colorado-based Carton Council of North America announced today that it has been conducting a pilot program that uses artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of carton recycling.

Through a collaboration led by the Carton Council with two Denver-based companies, AMP Robotics and Alpine Waste & Recycling, a robotic system has learned to identify the wide variety of food and beverage cartons in order to grab and separate them from the recycling stream. The AMP Cortex, nicknamed “Clarke” after the sci-fi author and futurist Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, has spider-like arms with specially designed grippers to pick up and separate cartons at a materials recovery facility (MRF). Clarke was installed in late 2016 and, through fine-tuning and adjustments, has achieved a pickup rate of 60 cartons per minute. This is a considerable increase from the human average of 40 picks per minute.

“Clarke greatly expands opportunities for the carton industry as we work to increase the efficiency of carton recycling and, ultimately, divert more cartons from landfills,’’ said Jason Pelz, vice president of recycling projects for the Carton Council of North America and vice president, environment, for Tetra Pak cluster Americas. “Everything Clarke has learned about identifying cartons can be transferred to robots at other MRFs. We are excited to bring innovation to carton recycling and believe this technology has widespread implications for the recycling industry, as it can be adapted to other materials.’’

“Clarke provides a new and exciting approach to sorting recyclables. Currently there is nothing out there that does what this system does,” said Matanya Horowitz, founder of AMP Robotics in Denver. “Clarke can be a cost-effective way for facilities to introduce new packaging that does not always have a large volume. Additionally, unique grippers can be developed to identify and pick contaminants, which is one of the biggest issues our industry currently faces.”

“At Alpine, we’re always looking at innovative ways to divert waste from landfills while making recycling programs more cost-effective,” said Brent Hildebrand, vice president of recycling at Alpine. “We recognized this opportunity with the Carton Council and AMP Robotics as a way to contribute toward methods that might encourage people to recycle more. We are extremely impressed with the advances Clarke has already made.”

The project was possible through a grant from the Carton Council. The Carton Council formed in 2009 to expand carton recycling nationwide by building an infrastructure for recycling aseptic and gable-top cartons used for many common food and beverage products. Ultimately, the Carton Council and AMP Robotics hope to duplicate the success of Clarke at other MRFs as an innovative, cost-effective, long-term solution to sort cartons. The Carton Council is composed of four leading carton manufacturers, Elopak, SIG Combibloc, Evergreen Packaging and Tetra Pak, as well as an associate member, Nippon Dynawave Packaging. Through a united effort, the Carton Council is committed to building a sustainable infrastructure for carton recycling nationwide and works toward their continual goal of adding access to carton recycling throughout the U.S. For more information, visit CartonOpportunities.org.

AMP Robotics develops robotic systems for the recycling industry. From the beginning, AMP's mission has been to reduce the fundamental costs of recycling, making recycling not only the right thing to do, but also the most economically efficient method for waste management. AMP does this with a line of robotic solutions that remove valuable commodities from the waste stream and provide recycling facilities with actionable intelligence on the efficiency of their equipment as well as the content of their material flow. For more information, please visit AmpRobotics.com.

Alpine Waste & Recycling is the largest privately held commercial waste, recycling and compost collection company in Colorado. Founded in 1999 as a single-truck operation, the company has parlayed a customer-service and sustainability focus into a compound annual revenue growth rate of greater than 35 percent. With more than 80 trucks and more than 200 employees, Alpine handles more than 300,000 tons of waste and recycling products per year. For more information call 303-744-9881, or go to AlpineWaste.com.

The AMP Cortex has spider-like arms with specially designed grippers to pick up and separate cartons at a materials recovery facility.

Latest News

Equipment is arriving for Van Dyk's new test facility located in their Norwalk, CT campus. The site is currently home to their extensive spare parts warehouse (which holds over 13,000 different parts) and baler rebuild center (which fully reconditions balers for resale), and is their future headquarters intended to house their main offices and training classrooms.

December 13, 2017
A basic solution for smaller enterprises or recycling plants, the 518 trommel has what it takes for a first step in the separation of material mixtures.

With the new trommel screen Basic 518, the environmental specialist Doppstadt has placed a basic solution for small and medium municipal environmental services and recycling plants on the market. The innovation has a telling name: The Basic 518 has got exactly what it takes for a first step into the separation of material mixtures.

Essex, UK - Leading UK industrial & commercial waste specialist, Green Recycling, has announced the purchase of a Max-AI™ AQC (Autonomous Quality Control) to increase recovery of recyclables without adding additional manual labour at the company's commercial and commingled dry recyclables MRF in Maldon, Essex. Green Recycling is the first company in the UK to invest in this new technology, which has already been successfully installed in three US MRFs. Green Recycling's Max-AI AQC will be operational in Q1 2018.

Barford Equipment, the UK based manufacturer of mobile screeners, trailers, screen boxes, as well as wheeled and tracked conveyors, is poised to enter the US market in 2018 with the launch of the SR124 and the S104, two new track mounted screeners.

In its drive to reduce costs through the electrification of its track-mounted processing units, Keestrack is currently concentrating on hybrid crushing technology. Following teh lauch of its fully hybrid H4 cone crushers and B4e jaw crushers, Keestrack is now introducing the R5e hybrid impact crusher unit, designed to guarantee full capacity at low power consumption costs with the aid of a directly driven 350 t/h crusher and electrical transport and screen components.

Consider these facts. There are more than 4,700 facilities composting organics in the U.S., as per the "2017 State of Organics Recycling in the U.S." report released this fall by BioCycle magazine. There are 3,007 counties in the United States, most of which are required to update solid waste management plans on a regular basis. More than half of all U.S. states are in the market for a regulatory update and many of the rest are in the process of updating outdated regulations. That's a lot of regulatory and legislative action on the horizon for the compost manufacturing industry.

Martin Weissburg, currently President of Volvo Construction Equipment, will become President of Mack Trucks effective June 1, 2018, in which capacity he will continue to be a member of the Executive Board for the Volvo Group. Martin Weissburg was born in 1962, and has served as President of Volvo Construction Equipment since 2014. He joined the Volvo Group in 2005 as President of Volvo Financial Services Americas, and in 2010 became global President of Volvo Financial Services. He will be headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA.

PHOENIX, AZ - Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) announced today that Jon Vander Ark, 42, has been named chief operating officer, effective Jan. 1, 2018. As COO, Vander Ark will be responsible for operationalizing the Company's strategy and executing its business plan across its field operations.

December 7, 2017
Machinex’s Pierre-André Mongeon at the Quebec City glass recycling facility.

Recycling Product News recently had the opportunity to ask a series of questions about the factors behind scrap glass market prices, and the nature of scrap glass as a recycled commodity, to Pierre-André Mongeon, Machinex's glass recycling solution specialist and an active member of the Glass Recycling Coalition (GRC).

Charleston County, South Carolina opened their compost facility in 1989. Back then, the concept was quite visionary and progressive - the idea of a municipality operating a compost site was still rather nascent. But for the first 20 years the outcome was moderate at best, as the operation mostly stockpiled green waste and let time do most of the work. That all changed dramatically in 2011 when they reached out to Darren Midlane of Harvest Quest. After applying Harvest Quest inoculants and committing to the MSAP (modified aerobic static pile) method, Charleston County's composting facility has transformed from the "armpit" of the landfill to a crown jewel of national waste management.

ISABELLA COUNTY, Michigan - Bandit Industries will spend all of 2018 celebrating its 35th anniversary at its mid-Michigan facility, with a world-wide dealer network, and with many thousands of customers spanning multiple industries.

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) has announced that David Carson, currently president of Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC), has been appointed president of Western Star Trucks and chief diversity officer of DTNA. Carson succeeds Kelley Platt who has been promoted within the Daimler AG global organization to president and chief executive officer of Daimler's truck joint venture Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Co., Ltd. (BFDA) in China.

BRANTFORD, Ontario -- GreenMantra Technologies, a rapidly growing clean technology company that produces high-value polymer products from waste plastics, has launched a new website to provide customers, investors and other stakeholders with in-depth information about its revolutionary technology and products and their applications. The GreenMantra Technologies website can be found at www.greenmantra.com.

December 5, 2017
The newly upgraded SENNEBOGEN Maxcab is longer, providing the operator with both more personal space and additional room for creature comforts and storage.

Standard on SENNEBOGEN machines, the updated version of the Maxcab is about 3" (70 mm) longer than the previous generation. The resulting cab expansion not only provides more space for the operator to work comfortably. It also offers additional room for an optional electric cooler behind the seat, as well as additional storage space for other necessities.

Jeff Barber has worked at the Rapid City Solid Waste Division, in South Dakota, for 18 years and currently manages their yard waste and landfill operations. The division also provides residential collection of curbside recycling and operates an MRF. Barber's team produces three different types of compost, made from incoming MSW (municipal solid waste) or yard waste, including a 50/50 MSW/yard waste mix. The MSW and 50/50 composts are processed in a controlled environment, with the yard waste operation manually watering and turning the material to maintain an aerated, hygienically safe and finished product.

Mr. Kaiser, what is the importance of the recycling economy for Vecoplan?Stefan Kaiser:The recycling economy is one of the greatest challenges of the future. It will help to improve the overall image of the plastics industry - from the producer and processor to the recycler. We must learn to appreciate that we need to deal with plastics more sustainably. The recycling economy is important for Vecoplan, as a major part of our business lies in recycling and waste handling. We have been trying for a long time to put valuable raw materials back into circulation.

As of January 1, 2018, the Hydraulic Attachment Tools division within Atlas Copco will become part of the Epiroc, the company that Atlas Copco plans to dividend out in mid 2018. The division manufactures excavator attachment tools such as hydraulic breakers, cutters, pulverizers, bucket crushers, shears, grapples and magnets. Also effective from that date, all the division's current products will be delivered with Epiroc product branding.